Last night, I did something I hadn't done for many years: I watched American Idol. So much of what you have said radiates from that show.

This episode had the "Top 10" performing. However, even reaching that stature almost always means not finding a career in entertainment. Even many first and second places have fizzled in show biz.

This aristocracy is subtle. For example, its quiet influence that enough resources goes to prosecutorial teams to focus on blue collar crime--and not so much for white collar crime. The aristocracy is happy with convenience store robbers gets put in prison--and that seems to what matters most.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I have an ulterior motive for being on Medium. I have developed an alternative democracy. Its Medium essay is here:

https://medium.com/discourse/tiered-democratic-governance-3f36a8f45660

I believe that the current version of western democracy is never going to deliver what you and I want for society. The 9.9% will be the dominant political block in western society. We still need these people to run a proper society, but they should not be having the leveraged influence they currently have.